Parliament House Excursion

Last Friday, all the Seniors travelled by train to Parliament House in the city, as part of our inquiry topic. I was quite curious about what to expect.

I really enjoyed the train trip, as it was a good opportunity to talk to my friends. One of my favourite parts was going through all the dark tunnels. The first thing we did in the city was a race, the first group of students and their adult leader to find 5 historical landmarks would win a prize. The groups had to have proof that the visited the landmark, by taking a photo of it and writing facts about it on a sheet of paper. Unfortunately, our team didn’t win – we came third or forth, but everyone still had fun on the journey. The winning team won some sugar-free lollies and some sharpies. Everyone co-operated really well in my group.

A little while later we visited Parliament House. It was filled with so much gold that when I saw it, my jaw dropped. It was pure, authentic gold. We learnt a lot about Government and politics. To help us learn, we even acted out a scripted debate about if plastic bags should be banned or not. It was especially satisfying seeing one of my friends be a minister and wear a black coat. One part did scare me though – everything anyone said or did was recorded! When the man who was teaching us said that, I immediately turned around and saw all these cameras scattered around the room, looking directly at what was going on. “Big Brother is watching” (the presenter even said that himself, I didn’t just make it up).

At Parliament House, we even met a Liberal member of Parliament, Neil Angus! I even had the guts to “dab” him and so did some of my friends. He had never heard of “dabbing”, so we taught him. My friends and I also had the guts to go up to him and ask for his autograph. He did – he gave my friends and I his autograph on a piece of paper. Kids these days.

Now, one of my favourite parts of the adventure – The State Library. Since I am a little bit of a book worm, this was perfect for me. The library was massive! It is really hard to describe The State Library, as it is so overwhelming and amazing. The historic books.. the views.. the high ceilings, all of it.

Overall, this was a great experience and it makes me super pumped for Year 9 in high school when we get to travel to the City, where I’ll be doing more of this!